Echo Squad - Dreadnought
by Wayne M Thomason
Summary: [Mass Effect] Before Sovereign, before the Reapers were ever a threat, one race was already at war with their own creation. Quarians. Now before the greatest threat the universe has ever known shows itself, one special operations unit is sent out by the admiralty to investigate strange Geth activity. Follow the adventures of Echo Squad as they uncover a mystery no one is ready for.
1. Chapter 1

The Terran long range shuttle dropped out of the high velocity it had been in, shot from one mass relay slowing now in front of another mass relay. Firing its braking thrusters it decreased its speed further pulling back around skimming over and coming to a halt directly above the up fork of the relay itself. Once there it held position as if waiting for something.

Inside at the primary of the dual helm positions Dani'Breizh Vas Yaska powered down the controls and looked over to the drone floating above the secondary helm position. Below the drone she could see legs poking out from beneath the console.

"You done screwing around with that thing? We're at the final relay." She asked with less than her normal bubbling enthusiasm.

"Bos'tet!" Zen'Ratha Vas Honorata cursed before his hand shot out from under the console throwing a circuit card like a flying star.

"What was that?" Dani asked.

"Hoo-man technology at its finest." Zen called back. "Hoo-mans build everything with double redundancy systems in mind. But when the redundant system burns out before the primary it doesn't allow the primary to work. I'm just going to hard patch the primary system to the motivator. After that this console should work again."

She could hear him dicking around with something under the console and then virtual interface for the other piloting console came online. Zen's hands appeared on the edge of the console as he pulled himself out and back on his feet.

"Won't that burnout the console if we get a major surge?"

Zen sighed, "Won't matter. The redundant system was already bad. So if the primary were to go out it wouldn't be functional anyway." He answered as he align the controls to his preferences.

"Whatever." Dani responded, "We're here. You can take us in from here."

"Why? You're just a good as pilot as me." He asked

"Because I'm in charge." She laughed. "Besides I want to catch a nap before we get on objective."

"Whatever," Zen scoffed. "You just want to finish watching 'Fleet and Flotilla'. Just turn the karaoke mode off this time."

"Says the man who finds a different tune from every damn race and sings them incessantly for weeks on end. What was it last week? Turian Punk, I believe? And now its Hoo-man music."

"It's called the Blues thank you very much. It's not my fault this craft came with a full media drive of Hoo-man entertainment. Besides, if it helps me get to know the culture, it will help me figure out their engineering." Zen began to explain.

Dani got up from her chair, "Oh no, I've heard this rhetoric before. Culture leads to scientific understanding, scientific understanding leads to understanding what their engineering is supposed to do. It's old Zen."

"Fine." Zen gave up in defeat. "I found this in the media drive." He called up his multi tool on his arm and activated a download to Dani's quarters. "It a vid about star crossed lovers. They're both Hoo-mans but the synopsis made me think of you. Written by some guy named Shake-a-spear or something."

"Okay. You going to be all right up here?"

"Yeah, I'm still getting to know this ship. I can understand why they didn't want us bringing one of our own vessels into the Veil, but the conversions they made on this boat were fast, and not quite all the way. They got the scrubber system installed and fixed the quarters for sanitization, but that's about it."

"That's why you're the engineer Zen." She told him.

Zen had his nose back in the console and waved over his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah."

Dani just laughed and headed off the small bridge of the long range shuttle. Just before the hatch slid shut behind her, she heard Zen call out. "And tell those two to 'disconnect their suits'. We are in Geth space after all."

Normally Dani would let her crew do what they wanted, but Zen had a point. As she made her way back Terran music started to play over the ship's intercom system. The twang of a guitar started which wasn't completely unpleasant, and it was much better than the Turian music Zen has been into only a few weeks before.

The long range shuttle the fleet had assigned them wasn't much to look at. Terran design, the cockpit led into an open area which then led back into the six passenger rooms which weren't much more than a bunk, a desk, and a waste disposal unit. Beyond that was the main drive. The shuttle could easily tolerate a mass relay jump and interstellar travel, but had no Eezo core of its own. So after it left the jump it was all under its own power.

The scrubbers were working fine destroying any germs or bacteria in the breathing air so the suits didn't have to put any effort into cleaning the air, and the quarters had all been wiped making them sterile spaces so that you could remove your suit in a safe environment.

As she passed the door to Uli's quarters she activate the door chime. After a few moments had gone by she chimed again still receiving no answer. Finally Dani pounded on the outer door of the quarters "Zip it up you two. We're in Geth space. Time to get your game face on."

With that she turned taking the one step across the corridor and opened the outer door to her own room. Each of the quarters had been fitted with internal and external doors. Once between the doors you would receive a bio scan and you would be scrubbed with and energy filter. After that the inner door would open and you could enter your quarters.

With her scrubbing complete Dani climbed into her bunk and pulled up the Vid display. Frozen on the screen was Fleet and Flotilla. Like so many it was secret passion. She closed the vid and brought up the new one Zen had recommended. As the title came on the screen she wondered what the hell Zen had found. "Romeo and Juliet? Well let's give it a shot."

-

When they heard Dani give her orders neither Uli nor Myls cared. Myls'Stanis Vas Qwib Qwib Was kissing his lovers neck, their bodies entangled on the tight bunk. He barely registered the voice beyond the door. Uli'Narah Nar Yaska on the other hand had heard the voice but was coming down from a very intense orgasm she had just received, her legs still wrapped tightly around the waist of the man on top of her. She could feel Mils' breathing slowing back down to normal as he had stopped thrusting and now just rested inside her. She caressed his back watching her light purple skin move up and down his purple-grey skin. For the moment she was content, but she had heard Dani. It was time to prepare.

"Myls. Myls, baby, we have to get up." She told him softly. Myls grunted the affirmative but didn't move. "Myls," she said a bit louder now unwrapping herself from him, "Myls, get up."

"But I like it here." He protested.

"I know baby, but its time."

"I know what time it is." He said coyly and began slowly thrusting inside her again with the rigidity he had left from his own release.

"Myls, you got to stop. Myls'Stanis!" As much as she enjoyed him they had to get ready.

One moment Myls was on his lover, the next he was flung against the wall, pinned there as if defying gravity. Uli leisurely crawl out of her bunk. Reaching across the small cabin she traced the lines of the abdomen muscles of her lover. He was strong, exceptionally so for a Quarian, and she loved his body. But in situations like these, behind closed doors, she was in control. Her finger traced along his torso where she grabbed his chin. "What. Did. I. Say?"

Myls looked over toward "You said stop."

"I said Stop." She spoke with control, as if she was correcting a subordinate, or a child. "Now I love what you do to my body Myls'Stanis, but when a woman says stop, it means stop."

"Yes my love." Myls was a strong man, good at what he did. But Under Uli's spell he was completely powerless.

She let go his chin dragging her finger nails back down his body to his manhood where she cupped him gently. "It's time to get ready. Now clean up and we can relax together until we're on station."

He let out a groan of disappointment. She truly did love him, she planned on marrying him one day, but it was time to get ready for work. Gently she lowered him down on to the deck with her mind and helped him up. He stood up and pulled her close kissing her once again. Their bodies had long ago adapted to each other.

Separating she moved over and handed Myls his suit. "You seem awfully energized today. Any particular reason why?"

Pulling on the top of his enviro-suit he answered "I just haven't seen you in a week. I missed you." In some ways he was very simple, it was one of the reasons she loved him.

"Four days doesn't quite make a week." Then with a quick kiss she pulled up her own enviro-suit pants. "But if that's after a few days, I'd love to see what a full week provided." She purred.

Myls hit the intercom. "Zen, how long do we have before we're on station?"

Zen's voice could be easily heard over the music playing in the background. "We have about two hours, big guy. Maybe a little more."

"Thanks." Myls responded and slipped his finger off the button. He gave Uli a sly look.

"No!" She answered by crossing her arms across her bare chest. "Go prep your weapons and go get some rest. I know you expended more energy than you think you did." With that she pointed her arm toward the door.

"All right, all right." Myls ducked in getting one more kiss and then connected his faceplate. "See you in a bit." He smiled behind the faceplate and turned to leave.

-

Zen slipped his hand off the Intercom and continued his inspection. Currently he was standing in the cargo area against the bulkhead with his drone scanning the interior for weakened circuit and any structural weaknesses. Making notes whenever he found anything he wanted to fix or upgrade.

The shuttle was old. And this was their first solo mission with it. Normally they would be dropped in with a marine task force and given special orders. But the Admiralty had wanted something a lot more low key this time. Long range sensors had seen a major increase in Geth activity over the last cycle. Unexplainable increase in activity. Several raids recently had taken out new Geth outposts, but it had definitely come at a cost.

The Council's refusal to acknowledge Citadel laws and their ideas of how to proceed with the ongoing war with the Geth had forced the Migrant Fleet from ever becoming a member. So like many races that didn't quite follow Citadel rules, the Quarians were on their own. Which is where they are today.

So the Admiralty sent out Echo team to find out what happened out here. It seemed like some kind of a buildup but then a huge dispersal of forces. But something was still here. And they wanted to know what that was. As it was they didn't want to send a Quarian craft so this Terran Long Range Shuttle seemed to be a simple enough distraction tactic. If they got close they had a few cloned Geth IDC codes which might help them if confronted. The crafts name was the Mustang, some sort of quadruped animal on the Terran home world. So no with just over an hour to kill Zen continued his run down and inspection of this crafts capabilities.


	2. Chapter 2

"Bout time." Dani said as Myls'Stanis walked into the cargo bay. She was busy configuring something on the display on the forward bulkhead of the compartment. Uli'Narah sat on a crate leaning against the rear bulkhead while Zen was against the far side of the cabin tinkering with his drone that was hovering next him. Myls set down next to Uli.

"Okay," the squad leader started "We all know this was as last second as missions get, but by now we are a used to that. But the reason that we got sent out here in a human freighter will be obvious in a moment. Six days ago a long range radio telescope got lucky and picked up the emissions of a large vessel coming to the last jump point we just passed. It was barely in range of other optical sensors but we were able to get this."

An image popped up on the screen and everyone just stared. Whatever they had been doing wasn't important. Zen's arms fell slowly and his drone disappeared. Myls gave out a low whistle. And while you couldn't see it Uli's mouth dropped as she gasped very quietly.

Dani let it sink if a second before continuing. "A Geth Dreadnought. This close to the Perseus Veil it was out of visual in only a few hours. But the radio telescope was able to continue to track it until it got fully into the Veil. It was lost for a full solar cycle and thought lost until miraculously our telescope picked it up again. In fact the signals were slightly stronger than before. Deeper analysis on electromagnetic field we picked up showed not one but two signals. Identical." The next few slides showed the non-visible spectrum and the analysis. As she had said there were two identical signals only a few hertz apart on the spectrum.

"Two Dreadnoughts?" Zen asked. "The flotilla was tracking two dreadnoughts?"

"Oh more than that." Dani answered "The fleet continued to track the two and then received heavy natural interference as they moved into a Neutron star system."

All three let out their own groans. Neutron stars put out a lot of energy and radiation left over from the mass which they were now comprised of. It meant the team would be going into a very 'hot' zone.

"Can it." She said sharply. "Anyway, the star itself is not only putting out radiation but for some reason it is amplifying the emissions from the vessels. As the two started getting closer to the star itself we started getting more signals." Up came another screen, once again the analysis showed not just two, but seven separate identical emission signals. In addition to the stack of identical signals the display showed something else as well, two other emission signals.

"What are the other signals?" Uli asked.

"As best we can tell," Dani explained as she zoomed in on the first of the secondary signals "This signal is only really been readily recorded around the Omega 4 Relay."

Myls cocked his head to one side and asked "Collectors?"

Dani brought the next slide up of a Collector vessel near the Omega 4 Relay. I was large and cylindrical, made of what appeared to be rock and stone with a metallic ring array around its center on heavy spokes breaking through the central part of the ship.

"We think so. Allow why they would be meeting with a Geth fleet of Dreadnoughts is anyones' guess. The admiralty are of mixed conclusions on this one. Best guess is they are collecting species from the far side of the Attican Traverse. But that's only a guess. And then there is this. "She zoomed in on the final emission signal spread. It was larger than almost all the other signals combined.

Zen brought up his Omni-tool downloading that spec on the screen to take a closer look at it himself. "What is this?"

"The fleet doesn't know. The only thing that comes remotely close are anomalous stellar reading from the Thorne system. And that's a Brown Dwarf competing with the G class star it's orbiting."

Zen kept staring at the screen and then back to his Omni-tool to re-analyze the signal.

"So you had a Geth Dreadnought fleet meeting the Collectors and something huge of unknown origin. Our scientist estimate that whatever it is colossal in structure. It probably dwarfed everything around it. There they all stayed until just about seventy four hours ago. Then most dispersed deeper into the Veil. But then we picked up one more signal orbiting the Neutron star after the fleet had left."

Another slide came up on the display. This time there was a smaller signal just above the noise floor.

"What is it?" Uli asked. "If you hadn't shown us this I would have never known it was there."

"Science teams believe that the star is echoing off the hull of a Dreadnought." Dani said.

"Is that even possible?" Uli countered.

"You got me Uli, but the egg heads seem to think so. There is still a lot we don't know about Neutron Stars." Dani shrugged. Uli shook her head in understanding.

"So what does the admiralty think is still there?" Myls said as he got up from his seat, moving closer to the screen to better look at what could only be described as the Harmonic echo of whatever was still there.

"That's what we're here to find out. But they've never seen a convergence like this so they want answers." She answered. Looking over at Zen she asked, "Zen, how much longer until we're on target?"

Zen looked up from his display, then realizing what was being asked he tapped his omni-tool and another display came up. "We are about forty minutes from the system center, Boss. On target that's another story. But sensors are already showing a spike in the rads."

The radiation from a Neutron star is incredible, but radiation doesn't bother Synthetics the way it does Organics which is probably why the Geth used this system for their meeting. That could of gone unsaid, but how it affected the Collectors was a mystery.

"Uli that crate you're sitting on has our Rad meds. Everyone start your doses now. And watch your counters people, as it rises so does your dose. You all know the protocols and I'm not your damn mother."

Uli started to get up and Myls let out an audible groan. "You have a problem with that, Qwib Qwib?"

"Those meds make me nauseous Dani." He started but was silenced as the injector hit him from behind.

"Aaaaahhhhh….." Uli cooed as she finished his injection "Does your tummy hurt?" You could actually hear her pouting her lips as she asked. Myls turned around scowling at her as Uli injected herself with her dose. She handed the injector to her leader then wrapped her arms around her lover. "I'll make it up to you later," she whispered, "I just want to make sure there is a later."

Dani injected herself and then threw the injector to Zen as he slipped back into the cockpit. "All right people, let's get one last weapons and systems check before we get there."

-

Zen sat down and pulled up the HUD. Hull Shielding was down over the windows due to the radiation, and due to all the ambient energy he had to keep cleaning up his visual display. His orders had been passive sensor sweep only, which he understood but didn't like. So far they hadn't picked up any sign of Geth activity in this system, but with the strange readings the Neutron star's energy was giving his sensors Zen didn't fully think he could trust them. Hoo-man technology could be a little loopy.

But he did know where they were going. Whatever was left behind was big, and the stars energy was pinging off whatever it was like a rock banging off a metal wall. Finding this thing wasn't going to be a problem. Zen hit the intercom. "Heads up! Whatever this thing is, it's big and it's settled into a stable orbit around the star."

Dani popped her head into the cockpit. "Stable Orbit? Is it a ship?"

"Don't know yet." Zen answered cautiously "I'm not picking up any means of propulsion though."

"How is that possible? Shouldn't it be pulled in to the gravitational field of the star?" She asked

Zen continued to analyze what little he was getting from the sensors not turning around. "That would make sense, but I'm not getting anything on the passive sweep. I can go active an…"

"No." She didn't yell, but her message crystal clear.

"All right boss. But when we get there I'm going to have to open up one of the hull plates to get a look at it." Zen replied.

"Yeah I figured. Try using the veiwers first." Dani'Breizh recommended.

Zen brought up the veiwscreen, the picture was filled with static breaking periodically to give a view on a black on black starscape. The only illumination from the star was the ignition of gas and debris as it fell into the swift orbit. And except for what appeared to be massive leaps of lightning off the blackbody of the compacted material of the matter of the star stuff, this star was dark.

With only that minor amount of illumination and the poor reception of the viewer from whatever type of rays were hitting the viewer, there was no way to make out what it was in orbit around the star.

"Well crap." She said, unhappy with the results.

"It's the hoo-man equipment. I've added it to the list of things to fix when we get back." Zen reported distractedly.

"Any idea what it is?" She asked.

"I have a thought, but I don't want to say until we get into actual visual range."

"No, Bos'tet on that. If you know what it is then spill it. She ordered.

Zen cycled through the controls bringing the display back up. Each was a freeze frame still from the same feed they had just seen. Finally stopping on a semi clear shot of a gigantic lightning streak curving over the surface of the star. Zen tap the controls and a small square highlighted and then zoomed up on the area. From the screen you could see a part of the lighting in the background, but zoomed in like this you could see the blurry silhouette of something.

"Okay," Zen sighed, "I can't clean up the image any more than that. But by calculating the size in relativity to the star's mass itself…." Zen dipped his head and scratched through his suit. He didn't like what he thought, but the numbers… "…the mass of the object equates to a large starship."

Zen picked up his head from his hands and turned in the chair to look up at his officer in charge. "It's a Dreadnought Dani."


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone had crowded into the small cockpit. Zen was in the primary pilot's seat, the holo-display lit up in front of him. Uli had come in and sat down in the only other chair in the forward cabin. In front of her was a display that filled with static interspersed with images of space. There was so much light across all the spectrums is was causing havoc with the visual display. She sat there quietly waiting, hating that they we essentially flying in blind.

Myls had come in a short time later, putting his hand on her shoulder as he moved in behind her chair. She reached up gently squeezing his finger before crossing her arms in front of her chest. Myls saw the display and knew. Uli didn't like not knowing, it irritated her. She did well keeping it hid, but he knew. Uli didn't like being scared, it tended to piss her off. But this wasn't anything she could control. They were quite literally flying in blind. Myls leaned back against the bulkhead resting his behind on a crate that he found there.

Dani was the last to enter the cockpit, actually not wanting to go in. Not for distance or fear, but she didn't want to give in to the curiosity of it all. She already knew that they weren't going to see much with optics, that star was emitting to much light across the visible and non-visible spectrums, not to mention the radiation level kept steadily rising. No it would serve no point. But eventually she found herself entering through the open hatch. Myls looked over at her as she entered, nodding a silent hello. She nodded back as she slipped to the other side of the hatch leaning against a console.

Zen had turned on the display when he had returned to the cockpit after the mission briefing. Logic told him it wasn't going to work, but he was hoping it might. He turned it on and still hadn't yet looked at it. Instead he dove right in to trying something. Dani had wanted them on passive sensors only. That limited them even more in this stellar environment. But a thought had hit him as soon as he activated the display over the co-pilot chair. Light, radiation, and stellar matter were bouncing off the hull of the dreadnought; maybe he could use echo location to map exactly where the ship was. It was a long shot, and the hoo-man sensors definitely weren't designed for it, but that never stopped Zen. So he was tinkering, adjusting, and currently trying to tie in both a mapping and graphics program. So far it had worked enough to narrow down an exact location of the Geth vessel.

The Mustang swung wide around so that the Dreadnought was between the shuttle and the star, holding position. Zen leaned back in his seat as the display cleared up a bit showing the visual of the Dreadnought's silhouette.

Uli sat forward in her own chair. "That thing is enormous."

"Well, you figure Geth Dreadnoughts fall outside the purview of Citadel regulations and constraints. That makes the only constraints the time and resources that the Geth are willing to expend." Dani made the point quietly.

In design the Geth vessel seem to have the almost aquatic shape many of their vessel did, with a curvature found in marine mammals. Large external clamp arrays could be seen along the underside of ship while the mid-section flared out in a roundish hump. It looked as if all the weapon ports were still sealed and no external lightning was illuminated.

Dani stood and moved behind Zen. "Take us around."

Zen just nodded as his hands began to work the controls. The Mustang moved forward again moving in a long arc around the larger ship. In a smaller display above Zen, his sono-mapping of the Geth vessel kept running. A grid pattern shape of the Dreadnought began to appear.

"Passive sensors only." Dani ordered.

"Yeah, I got it. Not like this boat has any LADAR system to speak of." Zen quipped back at his commander.

The Mustang continued to circle the Dreadnought as the visual kept cutting in and out depending on the angle of the star. But it was Myls who noticed something on the mapping display. "What's that?" He asked.

"That's a mapping program. It's mapping out the hull of the Dreadn.." Zen began.

"Yeah I got that." Myls interrupted Zen's explanation. "But what is that?" He pointed at the display. Everyone turned their attention to the digital grid of the Dreadnought. In the lower quadrant on the solar side a large tube structure extended out from the hull of the Dreadnought.

"Is that?" Uli started.

"That's a docking umbilicus." Dani said standing up. "Zen, bring us around. Bring us there."

Zen worked the controls and the Mustang swung around to that side of the Dreadnought.

"Is it me, or does no one else find it a bit suspicious?" Uli spoke up. "Zen, what kind of readings are you getting from that thing?"

The shuttle came around under the Destroyer and around the far side travelling down its length. "Very low emissions." Zen began to report. "Passive infrared temperatures suggest most system have to be offline. Thruster are totally cold. I haven't seen any hull breaches or anything to suggest a fight. You guys see anything?"

Everyone mumble something but it came down to the same thing. The Dreadnought was intact. The Mustang hovered just beyond the umbilicus. Zen sat at the controls waiting, "Dani, what do you want to do boss?"

"Can you connect us to that thing?" She asked him in return.

"Yeah. But if we do it…" Zen leaned over checking something in the controls. "If we do it, I want to create the seal on our end. I don't know what's going on aboard that ship, but I'd rather we be able to detach on our terms, not theirs."

Dani shook her head, "Agreed. Uli, Myls, get ready to board." Myls moved out of the cockpit. Uli got out of the co-pilot seat and followed. Just as Dani was about to leave Zen stopped her.

"Boss."

"Yeah?" she responded

"This is just a suggestion, but we need to do everything manually." Zen said.

"Manually? What do you mean?"

"Listen everything has an automatic function; you walk to doors, they open. You hit a console, it activates something. But this craft seems shut down. Only reason I can think that a docking umbilicus is still left hanging open. Should have been an automated function when whatever it was attached to detached. But it didn't. It's hanging open. So no automated function."

"What are you getting at Zen?"

"I don't want to kick start whatever is going on over on that ship by some stupid automated function. We have a sleeping giant here, and I for one don't want to wake it."

"I can see your point. Everything manually." Dani reached up and touched her comm interface, "Myls, get the tools. We're doing this the old fashioned way."

"Aye, boss." Came back over the channel.

She looked back down at Zen, "Get us connected to that ship."

"Yes ma'am."

-

The Mustang leaned into the end of the umbilicus, the shuttle creating a magnetic seal latching this extended port to itself. Only then was the Mustang's outer hatched opened as to minimize any radiation exposure.

These exposed doors were then worked on by Myls and Uli. Myls used an auto-ratchet to unbolt the heavy outer panel, once it was freed Uli grasped it with her biotics moving it out of the way. It took a combined effort of muscle and biotics to move the large gears and locking mechanism back unlocking the outer door of the Dreadnought. Once unlocked the round doors had to be rotated 90 degrees before they would opened.

The door seal cracked with only the smallest gust of air. Dani did and atmospheric check "Barely any internal air pressure in that thing. We'll have to rely on internal breathers."

"Makes sense," Zen added, "Geth don't need to breathe. Probably only enough for whatever equipment needs oxygen."

Myls put his back into it, pressing upward to open the portal. The doors moved up and down and once fully opened locked into place with a heavy "clank" sound. Everyone waited with weapons pointed down the dark opening. Now open the interior of the umbilicus was dark, now regular or emergency lighting have been activated.

"Switch to low light." Dani instructed. Everyone switched their visors on to the new setting. "No useless chatter while we're inside. Zen wants us to keep of any consoles. So we are doing everything manually. I concur with his reasons. So if we need to get into anywhere we do it with mind or muscle. Everyone ready?"

Dani looked at her team. Myls had his Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle at the ready. Uli tapped something on her Omnitool and her Tech Armor illuminated around her as she drew her Plasma Submachine Gun, a weapon she had proudly wielded since taking it of a Geth drone months before. Zen had his Black Widow Sniper Rifle pointed down as his combat drone hovered over his shoulder. They were ready.

Dani reached over her own should grasping her shotgun, a Reegar Carbine, and brought it to the ready. "All right, by the two's. Let's go."


End file.
